Behind the Wyndham Nassau Resort and Casino on Cable Beach on a pleasant afternoon, there's a noisy volleyball game in the pool. Next door, snorkeling lessons are underway in a lagoon protected by coral rock barriers. A large party boat motors by, its loudspeakers blaring Kool and The Gang's Celebration.
``It's party time, party party time,'' a DJ by the pool says over his competing music, and declares happy hour. Bahama Mamas, a fruity rum drink, are going cheap at the outdoor bar. Minutes later, the DJ announces he is turning off the music out of respect for a wedding taking place on the beach. ``We'll be back in 10 or 12 minutes,'' he says.
You can still play blackjack for $5 a hand here - at least by day - and sometimes find a room for as little as $50 at the Nassau Beach Hotel.
But the days of cheap rooms and blackjack hands are numbered. In May, Baha Mar Development Co. bought three Cable Beach hotels and the Crystal Palace Casino, with plans to replace them with a 1,000-acre resort by 2010. It will include hotels by Caesars and Starwood, an enormous Harrah's casino, a new beach and an entertainment and dining complex designed to compete with Atlantis.
``Right now tourists go to Paradise Island,'' a security guard says, pausing on his rounds behind the Radisson, ``but when this gets built, they will all be coming here.''
TURNING POINT
So Nassau is clearly at a turning point, on the brink of going upscale, though that is hardly evident from behind the thicket of tropical foliage at Ardastra Gardens.
The collection of animals is small and their quarters cramped by U.S. standards, but I see some endangered species that Ardastra is working to conserve and breed: the Caribbean flamingo, the Bahamian rock iguana, the Bahamian boa constrictor.
Just down the road is another bit of old-time Nassau: Fort Charlotte, built in 1797 to defend the western harbor. You can tour the dungeons and see some of the original cannons.
But I am headed for something more modern: the Bahamas' first national art gallery, which opened two years ago in a grand old house with a wide second-story veranda and a view of the cruise-ship port.
Much of the older works, mostly Bahamian scenes, are by U.S. and British artists. A sign explains that art was rarely taught and artists rarely encouraged here until the mid-20th century. The more modern works on display are predominantly by Bahamian artists, often colorful, bold social commentaries.
Outside, as I pause in the street to photograph the building, an older man stops to tell me about the museum and the building, more than a century old, that houses it. He encourages me to go inside, clearly proud of the gallery. Pleased when I tell him I've just come from there, he wishes me a good day and goes on his way.
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